The Future of Recycling Could One Day Mean Dissolving Plastic with Electricity

SEATTLE (Waste Advantage): Chemists at the University of Colorado Boulder have developed a new way to recycle a common type of plastic found in soda bottles and other packaging. The team’s method relies on electricity and some nifty chemical reactions, and it’s simple enough that you can watch the plastic break apart in front of your eyes. The researchers described their new approach to chemical recycling July 3 in the journal Chem Catalysis. The study tackles the mounting problem of plastic trash around the world. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the United States alone produced nearly 36 million tons of plastic products in 2018. A majority of the waste winds up in landfills, said study co-author Oana Luca.

“We pat ourselves on the back when we toss something into the recycling bin, but most of that recyclable plastic never winds up being recycled,” said Luca, assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry. “We wanted to find out how we could recover molecular materials, the building blocks of plastics, so that we can use them again.” In the new research, she and her colleagues got one step closer to doing just that.The group focused on a type of plastic called polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which consumers encounter every day in water bottles, blister packs and even some polyester fabrics.

In small-scale lab experiments, the researchers mixed bits of that plastic with a special kind of molecule then applied a small electric voltage. Within minutes, the PET began to disintegrate.The team has a lot more work to do before its recycling tool can take a realistic bite out of the world’s plastic trash problem. But it was still fun to watch the waste, which can stick around in garbage piles for centuries, disappear in a matter of hours or days, said study lead author Phuc Pham. “It was awesome to actually observe the reaction progress in real time,” said Pham, a doctoral student in chemistry. “The solution first turns a deep pink color, then becomes clear as the polymer breaks apart.”

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